The biosphere, which is the part of Earth that is occupied by living organisms, is a self-organising, regenerative entity. Its rhythms, for example the seasons, shape the regeneration patterns of the living world. But living systems in turn make use of the non-living, or abiotic, constituents of the biosphere and transform them. Water, carbon and nitrogen cycles are expressions of that. Because the ability to regenerate is a characteristic of living systems, the biosphere’s regeneration is key to the sustainability of the human enterprise. Regenerations of the living world at various scales and periodicity are synchronised via natural processes that are still not understood well.55

Biological diversity, or biodiversity for short, means the diversity of life. Its decline disrupts biospheric processes, for example, the processes governing the climate system. The sustainability of our engagement with Nature is thus ultimately about the functioning of the biosphere, not just the living part of it.